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Two sore losers

Ventura
Published 12:41 p.m. PT Jan. 10, 2018

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - U.S. President Trump speaks at the National Assembly on Nov. 8, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea, where he warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that U.S. will not be intimidated or allow its cities to be threatened.(Photo: Chung Sung-Jun)

In the wake of an unfavorable vote in the U.N. General Assembly, Terry Paulson suggests President Trump create a multinational organization willing to follow American leadership in international affairs. As Paulson explains, "It's tough doing anything by a committee of 193 strange bedfellows."

Before the 2016 election, we were told by Paulson and indeed by Donald Trump himself that candidate Trump was a master negotiator, a man who literally had written the book on successful deal-making. Trump punctuated his claims with hard shots against agreements signed by his immediate predecessors. "Worst deal ever" was a label routinely attached to whichever Obama or Bush treaty Trump was discussing at the time.

So now that Trump has been outvoted 128-9 on an issue before the U.N. General Assembly, we discover how "Leadership" (the subtitle of Paulson's columns) and the "Art of the Deal" (the title of Trump's book) operate in the real world as they understand it.

To me, it looks much like the leadership skills displayed by sore losers in sandlot baseball. When you don't like the way the game is going, you take your glove and go home, muttering over your shoulder that you will never play with those guys again.

I must admit, I didn't expect better than that from Trump. I did from Paulson.

Rick Scott, Ventura

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